Speed of Life: Points on a Line from a to B Book

Mikael Jansson photographs Formula 1: cars, drivers, mechanics, race tracks, pit lanes, and spectators. But behind the colorful surface, the glistening bodywork, the noisy engines and the smell of burning rubber lies a fundamental concern with the power of the image -- both in terms of photographic technique and in regard to meaning within contemporary culture. How to depict speed, how to show the impact of logos and of car manufacturers without succumbing to the rules of the commercial game? Jansson's images are both grainy and perfectly focused. Speed of Life is revealed in everything from the passing car, the reflections on the visor of a driver's helmet, from the break dust of the opening lap to the rubber particles from deteriorating tires at the end of the race. These still photographs brim with movement and action; in their very stasis they show the potency of speed. His images have motorsport as their theme but they abstract it to become fundamental for understanding the tempo of our present culture.